


Getting By

by humanbean



Category: Glee
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5398952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanbean/pseuds/humanbean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>About hair and friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting By

She really should stop touching her hair. Jane is well aware of this- half expects strands to start coming out in her hands, really- but she needs something to do with her hands and they keep wandering back up. She could say that she’s a little fussy about her hair right now, but she won’t, because that would mean admitting that the jerks from her math class got to her. And that is unacceptable, because she is Jane Samantha Hayward and she will not allow herself to be brought low, certainly not by some mediocre boys who probably can’t even spell ‘polynomial’, let alone solve one.

In the most shocking turn of events since Donald Trump announced his run for president, Madison enters the library without her brother, and makes her way over to Jane’s table. They don’t say anything to one another for one or two minutes, working on their own separate assignments, and then Madison puts down her pen and looks up.

“What’s got your goat?” she asks.

“Nothing.” Jane lies. No, it’s not a lie; she’s _fine._ “There’s no goat.”

Madison looks at her for a long time and then reaches over and pulls something white out of her hair. “Paper.” she says apologetically, and then tosses it into her backpack.

Madison is in the same math class as Jane is.

“It’s _fine_ ,” Jane growls, but renews her hair shaking and fluffing with more energy than before. She’ll make it twice as big tomorrow.

Madison frowns, and gets out of her seat to do a quick once over on Jane’s entire head. “You’re good.” she says, and sits back down.

Jane is fine, she _knows_ she’s fine, and yet she scowls even deeper and she keeps touching her hair. She sits against a wall; no one’s being blocked from the board on account of her hair. They both go back to their assignments in silence until Jane pushes her pencil a little too hard against the paper and breaks it.

Madison places both her hands flat on the table and leans forward.

“My hair curls just like Mason’s does.” she confesses, whispering like it’s the world’s most solemn secret. “I straighten it in the mornings before school.”

Not for the first time and not for the last, Jane is left unsure of exactly what to say to Madison; she stares instead. Madison, for her part, is getting better at realising when she isn’t understood, and at _making_ herself understood instead. She reaches out further.

“I’ve gotten the hang of doing it so that it takes almost no time.” she adds. “I can teach you, if you want.”

Then Jane understands what she’s getting at- everyone has their own ways of getting by. “I’ll pass.” she says, taking extra care not to sound cold or dismissive. “Thank you, though.”

* * *

 

The next morning, as Jane settles into her usual seat in the math classroom, Madison slides in next to her abruptly and with the subtlety of a cement truck.

“Did you do the homework?” she asks, and that’s when Jane lifts her eyes and actually looks at her. Madison’s usual sleek ponytail has transformed into a thick mane of barely pulled back curls.

Jane tries not to smile, but she can’t help it.


End file.
